£1 



FACING THE FACTS 

ADDRESS DELIVERED 

by 

WILLIAM L. ETTINGER 

Superintendent of Schools 



Associate Superintendents, District Superintendents, 

Examiners, Directors, Assistant Directors 

and Inspectors 



**? 



SEPTEMBER 14, 1922 



FACING THE FACTS 



ADDRESS DELIVERED 



by 



WILLIAM L* ETTINGER 

Superintendent of Schools 

before 

Associate Superintendents, District Superintendents, 

Examiners, Directors, Assistant Directors 

and Inspectors 



% 



September 14, 1922 






l#- 



(,*=> 

& 



Members of the poaro of Hbucatiatt 

President 
GEORGE J. RYAN 

Vice-President 
HARRY B. CHAMBERS 

JOHN E. BOWE 

JOHN A. FERGUSON, M. D, 

MRS. EMMA L. MURRAY 

ARTHUR S. SOMERS 

M. SAMUEL STERN 



LIBRARY OF CONG*»-SS ■ 

DECEIVED 

0GT181222 

DOCUMENTS B.V.oit* J 



Ladies and Gentlemen: 

I conceive it to be my duty and my 
privilege, as Superintendent of Schools, 
to convoke you at the close of your 
summer vacation, to discuss educational 
problems that I deem of great impor- 
tance to the proper conduct of our 
school system. In so doing may I add, 
by way of greeting, that I trust your 
"days off" have been both pleasant and 
profitable. To paraphrase Van Dyke's 
charming essay, I hope your well earned 
vacation among the islands of repose 
has given you a steady hand, a clear 
mind, and a brave heart, to undertake 
your voyage along the stream of profes- 
sional work. As you have already as- 
sumed the burden of your detailed du- 
ties, let me ask you to unbuckle the 
straps and put the pack aside, for a 
short time, to rest yourself by climbing 
a hill, — a rather steep one, I will admit, 
■ — in order to view the entire educational 
[31 



FACING THE FACTS 

field and to gain thereby a certain per- 
spective that may prove helpful in your 
respective assignments. 

My justification for asking you to 
accompany me to the rather lofty 
heights of technical discussion is that 
we are morally bound, as men and wom- 
en engaged in fashioning human nature, 
to test the results of our efforts by all 
approved means made available by 
present-day research. The education of 
our army of almost 900,000 children is 
a tremendous task, involving an enor- 
mous outlay of money and human ener- 
gy. While the results are often difficult to 
evaluate, and sometimes at apparent 
variance with the immediate demands 
of commerce, industry, or professional 
life, yet the great world war, both in 
its origin and in its results, proved con- 
clusively that the moral vitality of a 
nation is more significant than any ma- 
terial prosperity and that such vitality 
is the energized product of an efficient 
[4] 



FACING THE FACTS 

educational system, working for the at- 
tainment of ideals, defensible in the 
eyes of man and of God. To the extent 
that we can definitely gauge the suc- 
cess or the failure of our efforts by sub- 
stituting ascertainable facts for emo- 
tional impressions, we not only beget an 
increased confidence in our aims and a 
basis for the retention or the modifica- 
tion of present practices, but we also 
are better able to place before an inter- 
ested and a generous public, more co- 
gent arguments for the adequate finan- 
cial support of our educational program. 

You recall, no doubt, that, in discus- 
sing Economy in School Administration, 
in my last annual address, I referred to 
the element of waste resulting from the 
crude classification and grouping of our 
children. I said in part : 

"Today progressive school adminis- 
tration requires that an earnest effort 
be made to sort our children on a scien- 
tific basis, so that group instruction may 
still be consistent with recognition of 
151 



FACING THE FACTS 

the fact that as regards physical and 
mental traits, one group differs widely 
from another. Up to the present, per- 
haps the greatest waste in education has 
been due to the crude classification of 
pupils. A vast amount of time, energy, 
and money is wasted whenever masses 
of children are grouped without regard 
to those physical and mental character- 
istics which individualize them and yet 
which, when properly recognized and 
made the basis of grouping, permit class 
instruction to be carried on very prof- 
itably. 

"If we are to eliminate waste, chil- 
dren of widely different abilities must 
not be grouped in unit classes. The child 
with defective vision, the stammerer, 
the cardiac, and the mental defective 
must not be placed in severe scholastic 
competition with normal children. A 
violation of this principle of organiza- 
tion means, as regards the children, not 
only extreme personal discouragement 
and the loss of self-esteem and self-con- 
fidence, but also considerable expense to 
the city, because such children are re- 
peaters in the grades. The proper clas- 
sification and segregation of such chil- 



FACING THE FACTS 

dren is therefore desirable, not only 
from an ethical but also from an eco- 
nomical standpoint. 

"The average class organization in 
many of our schools is susceptible of 
great impovement. In many instances 
poor classification results in great waste. 
The poorly graded pupils make a fruit- 
less effort to profit by instruction and 
the ineffectiveness of her work carries 
the conscientious teacher to the verge 
of nervous exhaustion. Not infrequently 
it would appear that the mode of organ- 
izing classes in a grade is exclusively a 
mathematical one of dividing the grade 
register by the average class register of 
forty, in total disregard of the distress- 
ing truth that the resulting class units 
are merely promiscuous groups of pupils 
showing the widest variations of age 
and ability. An analysis made of many 
typical classes by means of the age prog- 
ress sheet revealed the anticipated fact 
that pupils were grouped without due 
regard either to their mental or their 
chronological age. The facts recorded 
by the age progress sheet were appar- 
ently regarded merely as interesting 
data, to be filed with the Bureau of Re- 
[7] 



FACING THE FACTS 

ference, Research and Statistics, rather 
than compelling reasons for reorganiz- 
ing the classes in the grades. A careful 
study of the school history of exceptional 
pupils, as revealed by the age progress 
charts supplemented by simple stand- 
ardized tests will enable one to substi- 
tute a scientific class organization for 
a crude, empirical one that is wasteful 
not only from the standpoint of disci- 
pline but also from the standpoint of 
instruction. Furthermore, when so much 
standardized material is readily avail- 
able, it is not too much to expect that 
principals and teachers will apply 
standards of achievement in spelling, 
penmanship, arithmetic, and reading, to 
determine whether or not pupils, classes 
or schools are up to the level of achieve- 
ment we are entitled to demand. 

"Only by the application of scientific 
standards of measurement as a substi- 
tute for the rule-of-thumb estimate of 
former days can we justify ourselves in 
claiming that teachers constitute a pro- 
fessional body, keenly alert to the scien- 
tific developments of the day." 

In order to reemphasize the impor- 
tance of the foregoing viewpoint, which 



FACING THE FACTS 

I consider of fundamental importance to 
the efficiency of the schools, let me pre- 
sent to you in some detail, the results 
of an investigation conducted by the 
Bureau of Reference, Research and Sta- 
tistics during the past year, in which 
we attempted to measure present-day 
conditions in our schools, as revealed by 
the conventional measures of 

(a) rates of promotion 

(b) age of pupils 

(c) progress made by pupils 

(d) scholastic achievements of pupils. 
The facts I shall adduce will convince 

you that if our schools are to meet the 
needs of our children there must be con- 
tinuous and, I may say, radical changes 
in our present methods of school admin- 
istration. 

While the facts revealed by our study 
may be a source of discouragement to 
many of us who have labored zealously 
to promote the efficiency of the schools, 
I think it may be stated without fear of 

[9] 



FACING THE FACTS 



contradiction that the conditions re- 
vealed do not compare unfavorably with 
those that may be found in other large 
school systems of the country. Perhaps 
the chief difference to be noted is that 
we are earnest in our attempt to dis- 
cover conditions and we are willing to 
face the issues squarely, without quib- 
bling or evasion. 

(a) RATES OF PROMOTION 

On the basis of our present grading 
and promotion plan of organization, by 
which unit classes of children of pre- 
sumably uniform ability and attain- 
ments are advanced to higher grades at 
the close of the fall term ending in Jan- 
uary, and at the close of the spring term 
ending in June, the percentage of pro- 
motions and correlatively the percent- 
age of non-promotions or hold-overs, are 
taken as fair indices of the efficiency 
of a given school or a group of schools. 
The rate is correctly assumed to be a 

[10] 



FACING THE FACTS 

quantitative index of the success of the 
organization in question. 

Thus, on June 30th last, of a grand 
total of approximately 716,000 pupils in 
the regular elementary grades, 83,000 
children failed of promotion. What re- 
sults from such conditions? Presum- 
ably, the pupils were denied promotion 
in order to insure their better training 
during the succeeding term and to pre- 
serve the homogeneity of the classes 
newly formed. But the converse of the 
picture is, from the standpoint of the 
pupil, discouragement and unfruitful 
repetition of at least part of the suc- 
ceeding term's work, and from the 
standpoint of the school organization, 
increase in "overageness," early elimi- 
nation from the upper grades, increase 
in cost because of the greater number 
of years required to complete the course, 
and last, but not least, congestion in the 
grades. 

[11] 



FACING THE FACTS 

To illustrate in simple fashion the 
retardation and congestion that arise 
from prevailing rates of non-promotion, 
let me state that if we follow the school 
careers of one thousand typical chil- 
dren who entered school eight years ago, 
we find, applying the successive yearly 
rates of promotion, that at the close of 
16 terms, the phalanx of one thousand 
youngsters has lost its compactness and 
has become a group of stragglers, dis- 
tributed through the grades as follows : 

Distribution of the original group of 
1,000 pupils at the close of 

16 school terms: 
Grade Pupils 

Graduates 139 

8B 260 

8A 288 

7B 185 

7A 87 

6B 30 

6A 9 

5B 2 

The degree of retardation, overage- 
ness, congestion, and expense incident 
[12] 



FACING THE FACTS 

to such rate of progression will be illus- 
trated as I develop my presentation. 

The wide variation in the percentage 
of promotions as of the term ending 
June 30, 1922, may be illustrated by 
quoting the figures with reference to 
ten school districts, five of which ranked 
high, and five of which ranked low in 
the total distribution : 
Percentage of Promotions by Districts 
June, 1922 
High Low 

23rd District 92.3% 8th District 79.1% 
21st " 88.1 47th " 78.4 
19th " 87.2 29th " 79.9 
14th " 86. 48th " 76.6 
36th " 85. 27th " 72.3 

Another interesting distribution re- 
veals the variation in the rates of promo- 
tion of different schools, exclusive of 
special schools such as the probationary, 
for the term ending June 30, 1921. I will 
give the number of schools, citywide, in 
the five highest and in the five lowest 
percentage groups : 

[13] 



FACING THE FACTS 

Rate of No. of schools, 

promotion all boroughs 

High Group 

100—97% 5 

96—93% 18 

92—89% 27 

88—85% 93 

Low Group 
76—73% 45 

72—69% 16 

68—65% 8 

64—61% 4 

60— below 8 

The average rate of promotion for the 
city was 88.6. 

I present these promotion statistics as 
one aspect of a general condition result- 
ing from existing educational aims, ad- 
ministration and instruction. 

I know full well that no one in our 
schools will regard the presentation of 
these specific facts as a fiat that we are 
to maintain a regimentation of children 
and advance them irrespective of their 
attainments. But I do present them as 
ones that give additional reason for a 

[14] 



FACING THE FACTS 

careful study of the premises and also 
the methods involved in our present clas- 
sification and instruction of children. 
Conservation of childhood may be effect- 
ed through many agencies but through 
no other agency as effectively as through 
a properly administered school system. 
Let us assume an inquiring attitude 
towards the situation and ask ourselves, 
now and during the current school year, 
whether these differences in promotion 
rates are due to differences in standards 
of school administration, differences in 
the skill of the teaching staff, differences 
in standards of achievement, or differ- 
ences in the abilities of the pupil group. 
In the interest of childhood, let us be 
unflagging in our effort to study and to 
solve the elements that enter into the 
problem and also let us be determined 
and fearless in eliminating from the 
schools the factors, human or otherwise, 
that produce these unsatisfactory re- 
sults. Apart from the variation in the 
[15] 



FACING THE FACTS 

native capacity of pupils, to which I will 
presently refer, let us beware lest un- 
skillful teaching or crude, negligent su- 
pervision of school or district operate to 
produce or to maintain a condition that 
means continuous wastage of municipal 
funds and human effort. 

(b) AGE OF PUPILS— 

A careful study was also made of the 
age distribution of approximately 733,- 
000 pupils enrolled as of February, 1921. 
Although the facts disclosed were quite 
in accord with those revealed in similar 
investigations in this and in other school 
systems, I shall take the liberty of dis- 
cussing them briefly, in order to empha- 
size what appears to me to be their real 
significance. 

The age limits adopted as normal 
were 6-7^ for the first year, and 13- 
14V2 for the eighth year. While it is 
true that the Compulsory Education 
Law does not make attendance at school 
[16] 



FACING THE FACTS 

mandatory until the age of seven, we 
found approximately 13,000 pupils en- 
rolled in the 1A grade less than six 
years of age. Of the total 1A register 
of approximately 47,000 pupils, 40,000 
were less than seven years of age. On 
the other hand, according to the official 
reports, to verify the accuracy of which 
every effort was made, the ages of the 
remainder of the 1A pupils ranged all 
the way up to eighteen years of age. 

Of the 29,000 pupils in 8B, 9,000 were 
younger than the normal age and 7,500 
were of ages ranging from fourteen and 
one-half to eighteen and one-half years 
and over. 

The promiscuous distribution through 
the grades of children of all ages or 
of children of a given age can easily be 
illustrated. For example, among the 
47,000 pupils in 1A, the ages ranged 
from less than five to eighteen; of the 
29,000 pupils in 8B the ages ranged 
from ten to eighteen. On the other hand, 
[17] 



FACING THE FACTS 

on examining the distribution of chil- 
dren of a given age, say the 40,000 chil- 
dren twelve years of age, we found them 
in all grades from 1A to 8B, the largest 
number being found in 6B. A range of 
ten years holds for each one of the 
grades. In short, pupils of all ages are 
found in almost all grades, and pupils of 
a given age are distributed through a 
wide span of grades. 

Assuming, grade by grade, the age 
limits indicated, and grouping the pupils 
in the well recognized categories of un- 
derage, normal, and overage, we found 
that of 732,448 pupils on register, 317,- 
053, or 43.3%, were of normal age; 186,- 
603, or 25.5%, were underage or one or 
more grades ahead of the grade to which 
their age entitled them ; and 228,792, or 
31.2%, were overage or were "laggards" 
to the extent of one or more grades. In 
other words, of every 100 pupils in the 
regular grades, 26 were underage, 43 
were of normal age, and 31 were over- 
[18] 



FACING THE FACTS 

age for their grades. Of the overage 
pupils about 60% were overage one year 
or less; about 25% were overage one to 
two years; about 10% were overage two 
to three years; and about 5%were over- 
age three years or more. 

One interesting and important phase 
of the statistics gathered was the wide 
variability among schools as regards the 
age distribution of pupils. 

Thus, while in seven schools from 
41% to 55% of the pupils were under- 
age, on the other hand in sixteen schools 
less than 10% of the pupils were under- 
age. Again, while in two schools from 
86 to 90% of the pupils were overage, 
in three schools less than 10% were 
overage. In four schools the pupils of 
normal age ranged as high as 56-65%; 
but in four schools the number of nor- 
mal age ran as low as 1-6%. 

Is not this wide range of variability 
worthy of careful study? 

The information asked for and sup- 

[19] 



FACING THE FACTS 

plied made it possible to analyze the 
overageness into two factors of late 
entrance and slow progress or retarda- 
tion. The results showed that of the 
213,227 overage pupils in the grade, 
18.2% were late entrants; 64.5% were 
slow progress pupils; and 17.3% were 
pupils who combined late entrance and 
slow progress. In other words, in the 
great majority of cases of overage 
pupils, possibly about 70% of such cases, 
slow progress through the grades is the 
cause of the overageness. 

What importance shall we attach to 
this type of data? What significance 
has it for us who are responsible for 
the efficient administration of the 
schools in the interest of children? 
While in my opinion certain fallacious 
conclusions have been drawn from such 
data in the past, I think a study of 
such facts of variability of age in the 
elementary grades is of extreme impor- 
tance. While the amount of overage- 

[20] 



FACING THE FACTS 

ness is in part a measure of the rate of 
pupils' progress which, in turn, involves 
a study and discussion of other factors, 
such as classification of pupils, semi- 
annual promotions, uniformity of aim, 
course of study, and mode of instruc- 
tion, the vital significance of such data 
is with reference to the future, rather 
than the past, of the overage group. 
Overage is not synonymous with re- 
tardation but it is frequently an omi- 
nous prophesy of an incomplete educa- 
tion. Irrespective of their lack of suc- 
cess in the past, does not the overage of 
these 213,227 pupils place probable 
limits on the amount of schooling they 
will be able to secure in the future, 
either in the elementary schools or in 
the continuation schools? 

When one recalls the fact that any 
pupil may leave school at the age of six- 
teen years, regardless of the grade he 
may have attained, and also that a pupil 
may leave school at the age of fifteen 
[21] 



FACING THE FACTS 

r i 

years, provided he has qualified for ad- 
mission to the 7A grade, one can readily 
foresee that the great majority of the 
overage pupils scattered promiscuously 
through the lower grades will leave 
school before receiving a full eight-year 
schooling. Thus, a study shows that of 
the 80,000 twelve-years-old pupils in the 
grades, 4,000 of them will be fifteen 
years or older when they reach the 7A 
grade and will find it possible to leave 
school. Indeed, many of them will at- 
tain the age of sixteen before they reach 
the 7A grade and some may drop out as 
low as the 5A grade. In other words, 
our study reveals the fact that thou- 
sands of our pupils have been and will 
be eliminated from our schools with 
only a fifth, sixth, or seventh year edu- 
cation. 

Can we, therefore, as professional 
men and women, view such overage sta- 
tistics with complacency? Are we not 
in duty bound to ask ourselves whether 

[22] 



FACING THE FACTS 

or not we have scrutinized our aims and 
our procedure with sufficient care? 
Have we done sufficient in the matters of 
grouping and promoting our pupils, of 
developing differentiated courses of 
study, of individualizing instruction to 
the extent necessary to make our schools 
a democratic institution in which all 
pupils of all degrees and types of ability 
may secure an educational competency? 

(c) PROGRESS MADE BY PUPILS 

In order to analyze the element of 
progress as related to the ages of pupils 
in the grades, special data were obtained 
from the pupils' record cards, showing 
not only the age of the pupil in relation 
to grade norms, but also the number of 
terms the pupil had spent in attaining 
the grade he was in at the time the 
census was taken. We anticipated that 
age alone did not measure either prog- 
ress or retardation; we assumed that 
overage might be consistent with 
[23] 



FACING THE FACTS 

normal progress. We found we were 
justified in these assumptions but, in ad- 
dition, the data showed that normal age 
does not always mean that a child has 
made normal progress and that under- 
age does not always mean accelerated 
progress. It is obvious, therefore, that 
age grade statistics as a measure of the 
effectiveness of our work must be sup- 
plemented by progress statistics. 

The study revealed little to justify the 
traditional assumption that if we divide 
the elementary curriculum into approxi- 
mately sixteen equal parts, called a 
term's work, the average uniform abil- 
ity of the great majority of our pupils 
will enable them to advance or progress 
from term to term without appreciable 
loss. 

Of the 710,653 pupils on register in 

the regular grades on February 28th 

last, 85,938, or 12.1%, had made rapid 

progress; 297,821, or 41.9%, had made 

[24] 



FACING THE FACTS 

normal progress, and 326,894, or 46%, 
had made slow progress. Of the total 
enrollment, 

8.2% of all pupils were accelerated 
one term. 

2.5% of all pupils were accelerated 
two terms. 

0.8% of all pupils were accelerated 

three terms. 

0.3% of all pupils were accelerated 
four terms. 

0.3% of, all pupils were five or more 
terms advanced. 

Moreover, 

20.4% of all pupils were retarded one 
term. 

10.8% of all pupils were retarded two 
terms. 

6.5% of all pupils were retarded three 
terms. 

3.7% of all pupils were retarded four 
terms. 

2.2% of all pupils were retarded five 
terms. 

2.3% of all pupils were retarded six 
or more terms. 

[25] 



FACING THE FACTS 

As one might anticipate from the 
foregoing, great variability in rates of 
progress exists among the children of a 
given grade. Thus, among the 30,000 
children in 8B, admission to which 
should require fifteen terms' work, of 
those who had made the most rapid 
progress, 

3 had been in school 6 terms 

/? a << a a rj it 

o a a a a o a 

-j o a << a a n u 

112 " " " " 10 " 

but, at the other extreme, of those who 
were most retarded, 

380 had been in school 20 terms 

171 " " " " 21 
53 " " " " 22 
24 " " " " 23 " 

The same variability is found in the 
grade distribution of a given group of 
pupils who have spent the same number 
of terms in school. Thus, taking the 
group of 18,000 who on February 28th 
[26] 



FACING THE FACTS 

last were in their sixteenth term in 
school, we find them distributed from 
2B to 10B, there being 

1 pupil in 2B 

2 pupils in 3A 
11 " " 3B 
48 " " 4A 
77 " " 4B 

and at the other extreme, 

4719 pupils in 8B 
998 " " 9A 
533 " " 9B 
12 " " 10A 
5 " H 10B 
As we go upward through the grades, 
we find the number of retarded and also 
the number of accelerated pupils grow 
at the expense of the number of normal 
pupils. There is a decided decrease in 
the number of retarded pupils after the 
6B grade, due to the elimination of re- 
tarded pupils, which the law makes per- 
missible. 

The variation in the rates of progress 
in the different schools is striking. 
[27] 



FACING THE FACTS 

Thus, in ten elementary schools the per- 
centage of slow progress ranges from 
66% to 85%, while in sixteen schools it 
ranges from 1% to 30%. While fifteen 
schools range from 25% to 50% in rapid 
progress, ninety schools have only from 
1% to 5% rapid progress. While forty 
schools range from 50% to 60% normal 
progress, twenty-five schools range 
from 1% to 25% normal progress, four 
of these schools have less than 5% 
normal progress. 

A most interesting result of the study 
was the disclosure that the age grade 
status of a pupil bore no definite rela- 
tionship to the progress he had made. 
Thus, briefly to epitomize the results, 
let me state that of every thousand pu- 
pils, 260 were underage, but of these 
underage pupils, 

83 had made rapid progress 
162 " " normal " 
15 " " slow 

[28] 



FACING THE FACTS 

Of 440 of the thousand who were of 
normal age 

23 had made rapid progress 
217 " " normal " 
200 " " slow 

Of the 300 overage pupils, 

15 had made rapid progress 
40 " " normal " 
245 " " slow 

In other words, incorrect assumptions 
are that all underage pupils have made 
rapid progress, inasmuch as twice as 
many made only normal progress as 
made rapid progress; that all pupils of 
normal age have normal progress, inas- 
much as about as many made slow prog- 
ress as made normal progress; that 
overage is synonymous with slow prog- 
ress, when the truth of the matter is 
that some made either normal or rapid 
progress. 

Or, to put the matter in a different 
way, of 1,000 rapid progress pupils, 

[29] 



FACING THE FACTS 

684 are underage 
193 " normal age 
123 " overage 
Of 1,000 normal progress pupils, 

386 are underage 
519 " normal age 

95 " overage 
Of 1,000 slow progress pupils, 

33 are underage 
434 " normal age 
533 " overage 

While various investigators, in dis- 
cussing the causes of overage and re- 
tardation, have assigned many interest- 
ing and no doubt valid causes, such as 
nationality, foreign birth, physical de- 
fects, late entrance, frequent transfers, 
part time, absence of teacher, inefficient 
teaching, absence of pupil, and over- 
large classes, little stress has been laid 
upon variation from average mentality 
as a factor in retardation. 

A study was therefore made of this 
phase of the problem. The investiga- 

[30] 



FACING THE FACTS 

tion was limited to about 900 pupils in 
twenty-two schools in the districts su- 
pervised by District Superintendent 
John E. Wade, with the cooperation of 
Miss Elizabeth E. Farrell, Inspector of 
Ungraded Classes, and trained phycholo- 
gists and post-graduate students from 
Teachers' College. The investigation 
was confined to those pupils in the two 
school districts who showed a retarda- 
tion of more than two years or four 
school terms. 

The results with reference to 810 
pedagogically retarded pupils showed 
that 

434 or 53% were mentally underage 

167 or 20% were normal 

209 or 25% were overage mentally 

Of those, constituting one-half the 
group, who were mentally underage, 
263 were 1 year or less underage 
134 " 1 to 2 years 
29 " 2 to 3 " 
6 " 3 to 4 " 
2 " over 4 " 
[31] 



FACING THE FACTS 

The same results were revealed by 
classification according to their intelli- 
gence quotients and also according to 
their educational quotients. 

In short, precisely half the group re- 
tarded two chronological terms were 
shown to lack the mental capacity to do 
the work of the grades in which they 
were enrolled. 

(d) SCHOLASTIC ACHIEVEMENTS 
OF PUPILS— 

That the variations we find in our 
classes in the matter of age and prog- 
ress is further exemplified in achieve- 
ment tests in the subjects of the cur- 
riculum is now becoming a matter of 
familiar knowledge. We are deceiving 
ourselves if we defend our present crude 
grading scheme on the ground that we 
have class units which are homogene- 
ous in respect to achievement or the 
mastery of subjects of the curriculum. 

Whether we test in arithmetic, in 
spelling, or in penmanship, there are dis- 
[32] 



FACING THE FACTS 

closed such wide variations of ability 
within the class and the grade group as 
to make grade distinctions indefinite 
and nebulous, if not meaningless. Thus, 
to pass over the results of the Courtis 
investigation in arithmetic which dis- 
closed wide overlapping of grades, so 
that some pupils of an intermediate 
grade, such as 6A, displayed ability 
equal to that of 8B pupils, while others 
were less proficient than the average 4B 
pupil, let me just refer to the results of 
certain investigations conducted by Di- 
rector Nifenecker, of the Bureau of 
Reference, Research and Statistics. 

In a recent spelling test in grades 5A 
through 8B, given to 5,260 pupils, while 
approximately 2% of the 749 pupils in 
5A had the twenty-five words correct, 
about 5% of the pupils in the same grade 
had none or only one right. The same 
general result held for 5B and 6A. In 
grades 6B and 7A, totaling 1,400 pupils, 
while practically 20% had all right, ap- 
[33] 



FACING THE FACTS 



proximately 7% of them had ten or less 
right. A comparison of the different 
grades shows extreme variability. Thus, 
of the 749 pupils in 5 A, 33% of the 5 A 
pupils exceeded the 5B average, 21% ex- 
ceeded the 6 A average, 14% the 6B 
average, 10% the 7 A average, 7% the 
7B average, 3% the 8 A average, and 3% 
the 8B average. On the other hand, 
of the 475 pupils in the 8B grades, 
30% fell below the 8 A average 



13% " 


" " 7B 


9% " 


" " 7A 


6% " 


" " 6B 


3% " 


" " 6A 


1% " 


" " 5B 


4% " 


" " 5A 



The same extreme variability in mas- 
tery of subject matter was illustrated 
by the results we obtained in a recent 
test of penmanship ability of approxi- 
mately 10,000 pupils in grades 4B to 8B 
inclusive. Thus, of 1,110 pupils tested 
in 4B, 

[34] 



FACING THE FACTS 



24% exceeded the 5 A standard 


17% 


" 5B 


10% 


" 6A 


8% 


" 6B 


6% 


" 7A 


5% 


" 7B 


3% 


" 8A 


2% 


" 8B 



On the other hand, of the 1,000 pupils 
in8B, 
64% failed to attain the 8 A standard 



47% " " 


" 7B 


47% " " 


ii 7A 


39% " " 


" 6B 


24% " " 


" 6A 


17% " " 


" 5B 


14% " " 


" 5A 


7% " " 


" 4B 



The more accurately we study our 
statistics of achievement, the more we 
are forced to infer that the common as- 
sumption that our present class groups 
are homogeneous as regards the mastery 
of the principal subjects of the curri- 
culum, is a delusion and a snare. We 
predicate our instruction upon that 
[35] 



FACING THE FACTS 

specious basis only to discover its in- 
effectiveness. In crudely organized class- 
es, such as exist in many of our schools, 
while a certain number, perhaps the ma- 
jority of the class, are interested, re- 
ceptive, and succeed fairly well, the 
pupils of less than average ability strive 
without succeeding and the pupils of 
ability succeed without trying. While 
such grouping demands excessive effort 
on the part of the conscientious teacher, 
it destroys in many pupils those habits 
and traits of industry, self-confidence, 
and self-respect which, in value, are im- 
mensely superior even to encyclopedic 
knowledge. 

CERTAIN IMPLICATIONS 

Our school system is a growth and an 
inheritance. Our school of today is the 
successor of the ungraded school of 
older days, in which there was no at- 
tempt at class groups, group instruc- 
tion, and semi-annual promotions. As 
[36] 



FACING THE FACTS 

distinct from such individualistic type 
of organization, stands the city school 
of today, with its uniform course of 
study, its series of grades of equal allot- 
ments of work to be covered by all pupils 
in equal times, and its semi-annual sort- 
ing and advancement of pupils on the 
basis of successful achievement. Both 
the organization and the procedure are 
based upon the assumption that all chil- 
dren have about equal mental ability, 
that they can progress through the 
grades on the basis of uniform treat- 
ment in about equal times, and that the 
kind of sorting at the close of the term 
to which we are accustomed, namely, 
classification on the basis of unstand- 
ardized informational tests, is suffi- 
cient to insure pupil groups, homogene- 
ous as regards ability and achievements. 
Is it not worth while, therefore, to re- 
gard our work in a critical, impersonal 
manner and to ask ourselves whether or 
not we should continue unchanged sys- 

[37] 



FACING THE FACTS 

terns of school management and instruc- 
tion based upon such untenable assump- 
tions ? 

Although our present grading system 
is largely chronological and assumes 
that pupils of about equal ability and 
equal age enter at the same time and 
master subjects and progress at the 
same rate, we know that the truth of 
the matter is that pupils of a given class 
as ordinarily constituted are of widely 
different mental types, subnormal, dull, 
average, bright, or even precocious, are 
of widely different ages, have prog- 
ressed at different rates, and differ very 
much indeed in the mastery of school 
subjects. In other words, while every 
important consideration, economic and 
pedagogical, makes homogeneity of the 
class group desirable, we still are far 
from the attainment of such a happy 
condition. 

Fortunately, I believe that the rapid 
advance in the technique of measuring 

[38] 



FACING THE FACTS 

mental ability and accomplishments 
means that we stand on the threshold 
of a new era in which we will increas- 
ingly group our pupils on the basis of 
both intelligence and accomplishment 
quotients and of necessity, provide dif- 
ferentiated curricula, varied modes of 
instruction, and flexible promotion 
schemes to meet the crying needs of our 
children. 

In this connection I wish to express 
my appreciation of discussions con- 
tained in past official reports made by 
Associate Superintendents Andrew W. 
Edson, Clarence E. Meleney, Gustave 
Straubenmuller, and Edgar Dubs Shi- 
nier, and also my admiration for those 
district superintendents and principals 
who, in a fine professional spirit, have 
reduced theory to practice by organiz- 
ing their schools in whole or in part on 
the basis of the newer and better stand- 
ards made available by recent research. 

[39] 



FACING THE FACTS 

I have traversed these several fields 
of investigation with considerable care, 
in order to lay before you striking facts 
that imperatively demand continuing 
scrutiny of our existing class organiza- 
tion. The data by schools and districts 
upon which these conclusions are based 
will be supplied In a printed report 
which will be issued during the current 
term. As those who occupy strategic po- 
sitions of influence and control over dis- 
tricts or divisions of our schools, you 
cannot escape the obligation so to dis- 
tribute your time and attention during 
the present school year, that these larg- 
er aspects of school organization and ad- 
ministration will not be crowded beyond 
the pale of inquiry and consideration by 
a host of petty details that more prop- 
erly characterize the functions of the 
principal or his assistants. 

Moreover, even though, despite ear- 
nest effort, you cannot, because of wide 
variation in energy, intelligence, and 

[40] 



FACING THE F ACTS 

professional skill among our principals, 
insure in all the schools you supervise, 
the kind of organization you know to be 
desirable, you can and should enlist the 
efforts of the best of your principals to 
study the problem of grading and to 
make their schools a pattern and a mod- 
el which others may visit and study. 
Indeed, I sometimes feel that our sys- 
tem lacks a spirit of generous rivalry 
in matters of attendance, of proficiency, 
of classification of pupils, which, when 
present, invigorates and inspires all to 
reach and to maintain a maximum ef- 
fort. Our school system, like the 
many thousands of individuals who com- 
pose it, has reservoirs of wisdom and 
energy that will enrich and beautify 
our fields of educational endeavor. But 
unless the search is made, unless the 
demand arises, we fail to rise to splen- 
did heights of rigorous endeavor, and 
are prone to adopt a complacent laissez- 

[41] 



FACING THE FACTS 

faire policy in which self help is re- 
garded as half scandal. 

As those charged with the sacred re- 
sponsibility of fashioning souls for all 
eternity, let us bring to our daily work 
the fullest information and insight 
which professional study and research 
make available. Let us bring to the 
work of the new year a mind refreshed 
and invigorated by a point of view that 
proves that our problems have a rich- 
ness, a variety, and a significance which 
demand that we undertake their solu- 
tion with a persistence and an enthusi- 
asm that characterize searchers for hid- 
den treasure. 

I need not assure you that the fore- 
going analysis of present conditions 
should not be interpreted as an expres- 
sion of lack of confidence in the effec- 
tiveness of our work nor regarded as 
a plea for the hasty adoption of ill- 
advised plans intended to change the 

[42] 



FACING THE FACTS 

conditions revealed. I trust to your in- 
telligence and to your initiative to study 
the conditions in the schools subject to 
your supervision and gradually to effect 
an improvement of conditions by reme- 
dies as various as your wisdom may 
suggest and the needs of the situation 
may demand. As a statement of my 
earnest purpose I cannot do better than 
to quote the father of modern induc- 
tive method, Sir Francis Bacon, who 
wrote: "I do not endeavor, either by 
triumphs of confutation or assumption 
of authority, to invest these inventions 
of mine with any majesty. I have not 
sought, nor do I seek, either to force 
or ensnare men's judgments, but I lead 
them to things themselves and the con- 
cordances of things, that they may see 
for themselves what they have, what 
they can dispute, what they can add, 
and contribute to the common stock." 



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